Saturday, 31 December 2011

Where HAS this year gone? It seems to have passed so quickly....absolutely flown by. I wonder what 2012 will hold for us all? Lots of love, laughter and hapiness I hope :)

Just thought I would make my last post of 2011 a little sneak of the next challenge from Scrapology I had an absolute blast creating this layout...just wait til you see the beautiful pages that the DT have designed....gorgeous! We hope you will feel like joining in with us :)

Just a short one tonight ( bet you breathed a sigh of relief lol), so I would just like to leave you with every good wish from me to you for a Happy and Healthy 2012, may it be filled with love and luaghter in large portions for all of us.See you next yearWarmest wishesAnita..xxx

Monday, 26 December 2011

Hello there....I hope you and your loved ones had a wonderful day yesterday and that it continued on into today :)

I have just a few pics to share with you if you will indulge me...xxxx

Firstly this snap of the candles in our bedroom window ( taken first thing yesterday morning when our girls came charging in, as always, to open their stockings in out room ( well, it's tradition lol). I loved how all the reflections shone out through the double glazing.One of my favourite gifts were 2 very special charms for on my bracelet. Dale bought me the ' 'LOVE' spin wheel and the 'Soul Mate' cube bead and I am thrilled with them and very touched that he bought thenm for me ( I also had some of my fave perfume and a beautiful figurine....I will share that sometime :) ) I had some really lovely pressies and feel totally spoilt.

Check out this divine, handsome little chap. He is a Charlie Bear and my very Best Friend, Sue, gave him to me. Oh my gosh he IS the softest, most cuddly bear with a gorgeous face and puppy dog eyes......and the best thing is his official name is..........Sprout!!!!Thank you Sue sooooo much, I will treasure him and look after him well Hun..xxxxx

The girls had lots of lovely presents and were totally spoilt.....but one of Lauren's favourite things ( albeit probably the cheapest too) was a pack of 'rub on' transfer finger moustache's lol...so we had a little photo session.After the girls had opened and sorted most of their pressies.....they both decided to climb in their sacks instead lol. I made these sacks for them both a few years ( when Chloe was a baby infact) they are all stitched by hand and I used calico and fabric from Debbie Mumm. I am hoping they will last a good few more years.

I hope you have all had a wonderful time too.....and been spoilt. Let me know if you post some pics...I would love to come and have a look.Right, I need to get to bed....back to getting up for work at 3.30am in the morning ( booooo....hisssss!)Catch you soon okWarmest WishesAnita..xxx

Saturday, 24 December 2011

I popped up to one of our local garden centres the other day with the girls.....and look who we bumped in to LOL. We half expected to see a big basket underneath and find they were doing tethered balloon rides....but alas no!

Our Christmas tree is filled to the brim with glass candles and baubles that have been collected, hand made or given as gifts over many years ( I have over 300 on there!) and I thought I would share just a few of them with you(( don't panic, it will only be a few....not the whole lot lol).

Starting off with my gorgeous new Angel who has taken pride of place at the top this year. She was lovingly created and kindly given to me by my lovely and much loved friend LynnShe is so multi talented and her needlework is just neat and lovely, Lynn made several of these gorgeous Angels and gave to all her cropping friends.I have had this next dec for several years. My dear, late Little Nanna bought me this one and it looks amazing in the dark. You place a fairy light up underneath the fireplace and it casts a warm glow through the hearth and is truly beautiful. It always fascinated by my girls when they were little and they used to stand gazing at it.Next comes this lovely Micky Mouse, he came all the way back from Disneyland USA. You pull his string at the bottom and his arms and legs jump about like a jumping jack.

My lovely Mum gave me this gorgeous little crocheted cupcake this year, its really dinky with its pearl sprinkles and fits perfectly on the tree ( I also have some glass cupcakes that I bought last year)

This next dec means a lot to me.....they may only be made from old plastic egg boxes, but they hold wonderful memories of my own childhood Christmases. I made these bells with my Mum when I was nearly 7yrs old ( so yes, they are antique lol) The plastic is soft and very fragile and the glitter is now dull....and the foil *dingers* in the middle have had to be replaced more than once. But I love them and each year they hang very near the top of the tree...at the front :)

And this is my new glass one this year. I just fell in love with him when I met up at Snowhill Garden Centre with another lovely friend Zoe aka Mrs WonkaHe reminded me of old fashioned kitsch style dec and more to the point, he looks like he has a pile of sprouts on his shoulder ( yes, yes, I know its prob just a green scarf....but I like to think he was bringing home the sprouts for Christmas!)

So there were a few of my fave's ( hope your eyes haven't melted into your keyboard with boredom lol)

Yesterday we popped along to a local warehouse shop for a nosey about and whilst there Lauren found this....... lol and so she gave us an impromptu performance.

And then round the corner she found this guy. I wonder what she asked him for?

I would like to wish any of you lovely bloggers out there who may amble along here once in a while a very Merry Christmas and I wish for you a New Year that is filled to the brim with Love, Laughter and happy days....

Saturday, 17 December 2011

She has set the challenge to use leaves on our cards...whether it be leaves, leaf shapes or leaf colours ( I just LOVE the colours in the autumn leaves, don't you?)

Here is my card for the DT this month.....I have to say it turned out a bit differently than the one I pictured in my head LOL.

I used 2 different leaf punches to make the wreath and then added some flat backed gems, a Craftwork Cards sentiment and a lovely K&CO brad for the top( because I am rubbish at tying lovely ribbon bows!!)

You have plenty of time to join in with the challenge and we would love to see what you create. Why not pop over to Scrapology and see what super cards the DT have made and have a look at the amazing prize that Chrissy has kindly donated for the lucky winner.

Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Yesterday I spent a couple of fabby hours with this lovely lady here called Zoe, AKA Mrs Wonka.

We met at Snowhill Garden Centre nr Copthorne and spent a nice time drifting in and out of all the sparkly decs and beautiful trees and twinkly lights before popping for tea and cake ( would have been rude not too eh ;) ). Then we popped into the small Hobbycraft for a nosey.When we left we gave each other our Christmas gifts and Zoe also bestowed me with this!!!!!Is it not THE most awesome wreath you have ever seen???Each sprout has been popped into the ring using a cocktails stick ( I feel their pain but I bet you loved stabbing them Zoe didn't you lol)

All those lovely little green orbs of lushness, all nestled together, cuddled up to create a ring of happiness and all finished off with a lovely organza bow....jeeeez that girl knows the way to my heart :).Just how clever and how thoughtful is she? Thank you Zoe so much, it was fab spending time with you and I just love my wreath Hun :) ( I can imagine how you must have felt with the smell of sprouts on your hands and in your car lol)

So.....what thuper duper extra special and unusual chrimbo dec do you have to share? Leave a link if you have one, I would love to come and see it.

Thursday, 8 December 2011

This is my DT layout for December over at Scrapology.I had great fun creating it and I am really pleased with how the back ground came out, I used white and blue tissue paper that I scrunched into PVA all across the cardstock. When it was dry I dry brushed it with acrylic paint and then rubbed silver acrylic paint across it too. I used my filter to make the punched cirlce. To start with the filter chewed up in the punch, so I popped it between 2 sheets of copy paper and then punched it again....voila! It works perfectly like that and not a chewed up chunk in sight!!!The flowers are made from long strips of twisted tissue paper too.

For December, Scrapology chose to lift a super layout by Pamela Young.

We were challenged to create a page using 'filters', you can buy filters from Fancy Pants, or create your own with coffee filter paper, tissue or other papers. They can be used as they are, or they can be coloured with mists or paints. They can be pleated, cut, bunched or scrunched. WeHere is the sketch for this month that we followed

Here are a couple of close ups of my page for you to see :)Why not pop over to the Scrapology blog and see what the rest of the DT and this months guest designer have created.....then take part yourself! We would love to see what you create.

Sunday, 4 December 2011

I am a bit behind with blogging this lol, but a couple of weeks ago Lauren asked if we could make a rainbow cake....normally these are just ones where we make a deep sponge cake and throw in lots of sprinkles so they melt when the cake is cooked and then we also cream up and sprinklise the outside of the cake too......but after having seen some layered rainbow cakes online I thought we would try one like that instead......

well we were REALLY happy with the results! What do you think?

The cake itself stood at just over 6 inches tall in the end lol and had 8 eggs in the mix!

The colours were lovely and vibrant ( I am surprised we were not bouncing off the walls and ceiling lol). After sticking each of the layers together with buttercream I had to try and cover the outside of the cake and then hold it on its side whilst Lauren poured sprinkles all over!!!Then she piped the top of the cake with swirls and decorated it......